Patronage
He developed a love of ballet after seeing the Ballets Russes at Covent Garden in the 1930s. He was a governor of the Royal Ballet from 1979 to 1992. He became a trustee of the Sadler's Wells Ballet Fund set up by Ninette de Valois, chairman of the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund from 1966 to 1983, and chairman of the Dance Teachers' Benevolent Fund from 1982 to 1999.
His second son Justin was born with Down's syndrome. He became patron of the Camphill Villages Trust, donating Thornage Hall near Fakenham in Norfolk and surrounding land. He was a vice-president of the British Epilepsy Association from 1962 to 1964, president from 1965 to 1993, and then honorary past president until his death in 2007. The Association named its highest award the Lord Hastings Award in his honour. He was also president of the Epilepsy Research Foundation and the Joint Epilepsy Council.
He was a governor and vice-chairman of the British Institute of Florence for almost 40 years, from 1959 to 1997. He was president of the British-Italian Society from 1967 to 1995. He launched the Italian People's Flood Appeal to help Italians caught up in floods in the 1960s, to supplement other charities, such as the Venice in Peril Fund, which were established to conserve artworks. For this work, he was appointed a Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Merit in 1968.
